Wellington FFA has plans set for FFA week

The local Future Farmers of America chapter is going to be busy in the next few days.

At the Feb. 5 Wellington City Council meeting, Mayor, Roger Stallbaumer read a proclamation, designating that Feb. 16 to Feb. 23 will be FFA week in Wellington. Later in the week, the Wellington FFA group issued the following statement outlining their plans:

The Wellington FFA chapter in Wellington will celebrate National FFA Week February 16‐23, 2013. This year's theme is Grow, and it celebrates more than 80 years of FFA traditions while eagerly anticipating the organization's future. More than 550,000 members nationwide will participate in National FFA Week activities at local, state and national levels. These members come from rural, suburban and urban environments and are interested in the diversity of careers within agriculture.

FFA members are the innovators and leaders of tomorrow. Through agricultural education and hands‐on learning, they are preparing for the more than 300 career opportunities in the food, fiber and natural resources industry. National FFA Week is sponsored by Tractor Supply Company as a special project of the National FFA Foundation and annually encompasses February 22, George Washington's birthday.

Wellington FFA members will celebrate National FFA Week by participating in the following activities:

Hosting a community dinner that is free to the community, on February 18 from 5:00 to 7:00pm at the Wellington High School commons, also that evening will be an auction and labor auction. Students will be sold to work for a five hour period of time, and there will be several items sold during the auction to raise funds for students to attend the National FFA Convention and provide money for senior scholarships. The students will also host a Teacher Appreciation Luncheon to Thank them for all of their time, commitment, and support of the FFA program. Each day of the week will be celebrated by having a spirit week. Students will get to dress up like there favorite TV reality shows during the week, all of which have an agricultural tie. Days include: Duck Dynasty Day, Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs, American Hoggers, Swamp People and finally a Blue and Gold day.

Students have been busy this month competing in many career development events (CDE). Mikala Bradbury placed 9th in the Job Interview CDE, and Jessica Reyes was just out of the top ten. There were 25 students participating in this intense event that included interviews, resume writing, cover letters and application completion. Six students participated in the KSU speech competition, Kaleb Hunt and Haley Farley competed in the Creed division, Cameron Bartelson competed in the Freshman Speech division, Mikala Bradbury and Kailey Klein were in the sophomore division and Chance Hain competed in the junior level speech division. Results from this competition have not been posted yet.

Page 2 of 2 - Students had an unexpected surprise while watching the Super Bowl this year as well. Dodge Trucks along with The National FFA Organization sponsored a commercial that highlighted the American Farmer. The day after the commercial aired Dodge announced that they would donate up to $1,000,000.00 to the National FFA Foundation. Three of the Wellington FFA students were interviewed by KWCH reporter Jim Grawe to find out what their opinion was of the commercial. It was an exciting time for Abbie McComb, Mikala Bradbury and Cameron Bartelson. They were surprised that the commercial gained so much attention. It was a sobering moment for them and impressed upon them the importance that agriculture really does have upon our community and world. This is the year of the "Farmer". The Wellington FFA Chapter wants to be a vital part of the community and to have members that become active community members.